Artemis Fowl: The Final Battle
by HRR2b23
Summary: Artemis is preparing to have his Atlantis Complex treated, when he learns that his greatest rival, Opal Koboi, has escaped from prison.  Rated T for possible minor swearing, please R&R! 5 chapters in so far!
1. A Blast from the Past

**Artemis Fowl: The Final Battle**

**Prologue**

Shortly after the LEPretrieval team failed to recover the body of the megalomaniacal pixie Opal Koboi, who had come from the past to steal a silky sifaka lemur, they sent out all of their active officers to places all around the world to find her. Undercover fairies is Disneyland Paris soon became LEP officers, searching everywhere in France for Opal, and it was not long after this that Tara was soon under heavy guard every full moon, waiting for the pixie to attempt a ritual. Opal was priority number one; until the People's most trusted human, Artemis Fowl II, contacted them, saying he had a plan to save the world. Little did he, or the People, know that this plan was made while Artemis was under the influence of the Atlantis Complex, and that they would soon have to fight off former LEP Captain Turnball Root, to save the people of Atlantis.

This forced the issue of Opal Koboi aside, and the People sent all of the officers they could to Atlantis, helping with the evacuation. After Turnball's plan was foiled, the city then begun to recall all of their evacuation ships, and Artemis Fowl was being sent to Dr. J. Argon's facilities to be treated for his Atlantis Complex. They had just foiled one of the biggest plots in history, and were ready for a few weeks' rest and relaxation. However this clumsy evacuation presented an opportunity, one that neither Opal Koboi could pass up…

* * *

><p><strong>Chapter 1: <strong>

Angeline Fowl has seen fairies before, she was no stranger to Captain Holly Short, the paranoid LEP technical consultant Foaly, or even the demon warlock N°1, but she was not prepared for the utter shock that came with seeing an LEP shuttle seem to come from nowhere on the grounds of Fowl Manor.

Chix Verbil stepped out of the shuttle, introduced himself, and asked Angeline to board. He assured her that it was safe, but after hearing that they will have to go through a hologram in the ground, down to a pit with liquid magma at the bottom in order to reach Haven City, she was put off a bit.

As it was, she was currently sitting in the cabin of the shuttle, speaking with the sprite about where exactly the chute was,

"Right now we are heading south to Tara, and we should be there in about twenty minutes," Chix said.

"Are you sure that we will be fine going into the pit? I have no intentions of being killed on my first visit belowground."

Visit. She thought about how she sounded, acting as if all of this was just going to be a fun vacation, but in the back of her mind she knew that this attitude was just to keep her from thinking about her son, who apparently has a mental disorder called the Atlantis Complex, and will be soon admitted to a mental hospital.

"Yes, I'm sure Mud Maid, I'm the best shuttle pilot the LEP has, aside from Captain Short, and I have not once had to report so much as a scratch on my shuttle."

This calmed Mrs. Fowl slightly, but when Chix took the shuttle into a dive, she couldn't hold back her high-pitched screams.

"Calm down, Mrs. Fowl! I didn't even take this dive fast, now that would have been something to scream at."

She didn't bother replying to this, because as soon as he had finished this sentence, they had landed, and Mrs. Fowl saw her son waiting for him at the dock.

"Arty!" She called, almost tripping as she ran out of the shuttle with excitement, "you're safe. I was beginning to worry."

"No need to worry, Mother. I am well, and soon my complex will be treated by the best doctors on the earth, or under it."

Artemis was slightly annoyed that he had used twenty-five words in the reply to his Mother, but he pushed that worry aside, knowing that his complex would soon be cured.

"Still, Artemis, I have to worry for you, you are my son."

"Thank you for your concern, Mother, but once again, it is in no way necessary."

_Fives already, I need to get treatment quickly._

Holly Short burst onto the scene, breaking up the family reunion.

"Come on Artemis, we need to get you to the clinic. Oh, hello there Mrs. Fowl, it's nice to see you again."

"Nice to see you too, Holly," she said, hugging the elf.

Once they were in another shuttle, this one heading to Dr. J. Argon's clinic, Holly began the discussion of how Artemis's treatment was going to play out.

"So after we get you to the clinic, you will be officially admitted, and then sent to your room. You will be left alone for approximately thirty minutes until Dr. Argon will join you in the room, where he will interview you, and make his primary report on you."

"I have been meaning to ask this for a long while now," Artemis said, "this hospital, it's the same one that Opal stayed at, is it not?"

"Yes it is, but you do not have to worry about that, ever since the Koboi escape the People have tripled security at every hospital, to make sure that criminals cannot break in, or out," Holly replied.

At this point, Chix Verbil was talking on his communicator to Commander Trouble Kelp, and it appeared that he did not like what the Commander was saying to him.

"What's wrong, Chix?" Holly asked.

"N-nothing, it's nothing at all."

"We just saved the world, how bad could it be?" Artemis replied.

"Bad. Worse than anything that Turnball could have done."

"What happened, Chix?" Holly demanded.

"It's Opal Koboi, she's…broken herself out."

"D'Arvit, not again," Holly swore.

**Just outside of Atlantis, fifteen minutes earlier**

Opal Koboi was livid. _Why?_ She thought. _Why is it that I don't even get to leave my cell? It's bad enough that they are taking us outside of this dump of a prison, just to go back in, but I don't even get to leave my cell? _

When the evacuation was ordered, every other prisoner, except for Opal, was put into a shuttle, handcuffed, and they took off. Opal, however, was deemed far to dangerous to let out, so they simply removed her shuttle from the rest of the prison and used cables to essentially tow it through the ocean.

It seemed like she was about to explode. All her cell consisted of was a small bed, even by fairy standards, and a toilet. _Even worse, _Opal thought, _it's all white, not even close to my color._

Throughout the whole evacuation, she was pounding on the walls, just begging to actually be put _in_ the shuttle like a regular prisoner. Instead, all she got for her trouble were sarcastic remarks, and the occasional broken nail.

"Why would we just take the most dangerous _former_ pixie out of her cell? So we can just let her take it from us?" The Atlantean elf was saying this to his partner, but Koboi could hear it just fine.

_I swear, if I ever get out of here, you two imbeciles will be the first to feel my wrath._

Of course, there was not much of a wrath that Opal Koboi could give them, because as she was killing her guards in her imagination, she remembered the _former pixie_ remark. She truly couldn't kill them, she remembered, not with magic anyway. Ever since she had a human pituitary glad attached to her brain, she had slowly but surely become more and more human, until finally, she was almost one hundred percent human, and was barely recognizable as the pixie she once was.

_Still, _she thought, _it is still nice seeing them blasted out of this ship with a Neutrino, even if it is only in my head._

The Opal Koboi of eight years ago had an attitude completely opposite that of the present day Opal, because she was finally get the chance to make her alliance with the only person who could help get her revenge, herself.

She took the Atlantis evacuation as an opportunity to finally free herself, because not only was the present-day Opal not in her shuttle, but the LEP hadn't even put a full squadron of guards on her, just two idiots with buzz batons.

_How could they think that just leaving her cell out in the open ocean would work out? It's basically begging me to break in. _

When she realized that the evacuation was being cancelled, she decided she would make her move. She dove below the ocean in her Koboi Labs suit (What other suit would it be?) and stopped right on top of her own cell. She took out a softnose laser, modified to fit human batteries, (which she had made a plan for, already,) and cut a small hole in the cell, but with her magic, kept the water from getting inside the cell. Without hesitating, she jumped into the cell and quickly disposed of the pathetic guards.

_Wow, _thought present day Opal, _My imagination must be really vivid, for a second there I actually saw myself—_and then she realized what had really happened. All that she could manage to say to her savior was,

"My gods I am a genius."


	2. The Cure

**Chapter 2:**

Back aboard the shuttle, Artemis, Holly, and Mrs. Fowl were all trying to understand what the sprite had just told them.

"Opal Koboi has…"

"…escaped again." Holly finished Artemis's sentence.

After she regained her composure, Holly decided that this was the time to take action.

"We have to go after her. Chix, turn the shuttle around."

"There is no need to go after her, Holly," Artemis started, "it is almost certain that Opal will come after us, if it is revenge she still has on her mind. We need to keep going to Dr. Argon's clinic, and see if there is a quicker, and certainly more permanent, solution to my complex than some electroshock therapy."

Holly stayed quiet for a moment, thinking about this, then finally said, "you're right, Mud Boy. Chix, take us to the clinic, double time."

Mrs. Fowl's stomach churned as their speed doubled in nearly half a second, and she felt like she was going to throw up, which made Holly and Artemis move away from his mother. Unfortunately, they had both moved away in the opposite direction, and it took them a moment to realize that they were pressed against each other, and another moment to move away.

"Eh- sorry about that, Holly. I thought my mother was going to-"

"I know, I thought the same thing." Holly replied, not too sure about how she felt about being pressed together with her best human friend, not to mention the only person she has ever kissed.

Up to this point, Angeline Fowl was quiet, as she realized that the criminal who had held her captive within her own mind was not only running free again, but that the more ingenious present day Koboi was loose again too. She heard Artemis and Holly talking about what they were planning to do, and intervened.

"I cannot let you do this, Arty," she started,

"I can't just sit back here and let you take off for God knows how long, and try and fight this evil pixie again. You have nearly died too many times in your life, and I can't let you put yourself in harm's way again."

Artemis thought about what his mother had just told him, and then replied,

"I have to help them, mother. It not only is my fault that Opal has escaped, but it has only been my intelligence, combined with the help of my friends, that has allowed us to defeat her in the past."

_Typical Artemis Fowl, _Holly thought. She was about to make a comment, when Mrs. Fowl made her reply to Artemis,

"Okay, Arty, I trust you. But after this, no more saving the world. At least for a while."

"Thank you, Mother. Chix, how far to the clinic?"

"You won't have to wait long, Mud Boy, we're here now."

Once the shuttle landed, and the three of them exited, they were pleasantly surprised to see that Butler, Juliet, and Mulch were already waiting there for them.

"Hello, old friend," Artemis said to Butler, "there is something that you should know."

"We already know, Opal has been broken out, by herself, no less. We need to get control of this situation as quickly as possible."

"Ummm, who's Opal?" Juliet asked everyone. After staring at her for a few seconds, Artemis realized that Juliet had never been with them when they had gone after Opal in the past, and when Artemis explained all that Opal had done to them, she suddenly realized the gravity of the situation.

"She needs to be captured," she agreed.

When they were finally inside the clinic, and Artemis was checked in, Dr. Argon burst onto the scene.

"You said you needed to see me right away, Mr. Fowl?"

"Yes," he replied, "is there any way I can be cured of this disease quickly?"

"Well, Mr. Fowl," Dr. Argon started, "Atlantis Complex can only be cured through months of electroshock therapy, and even then, the results have been mixed, at best."

Artemis was thinking about possible ways that electroshock therapy could be intensified, when a thought occurred to him.

"The magic you fairies have," he started, "it looks an awful lot like loose electricity, does it not?"

"Nice try, mud boy, but we have already tried simply healing our patients of Atlantis, it only subdues the symptoms for about two days, and completely drains the fairy of any magic that they may have had left."

"But have you ever had a source of magic as powerful as a demon warlock before?"

Dr. Argon thought about what this human boy had just said to him then finally said, "By gods, I think that might work….get him over here ASAP.

**Atlantis**

N°1 was having a particularly bad day. First, he had to help the elfin warlocks with an evacuation of Atlantis that turned out to be a false alarm, and then he was taken prisoner by Turnball Root, one of the most dangerous fairies under the world. After he was finally free of his clutches, thanks to Artemis Fowl, his favorite human, he had to go _back_ to help the evacuation shuttles get back safely. He thought that the dangerous part of the day was well over, until the word of Opal Koboi's escape from prison had reached him. He was just about to go and bring her down all by himself when he received an urgent message from Captain Holly Short on his communicator.

_ Artemis needs your help, _it said. _Please come to the Dr. J. Argon clinic immediately, we have a shuttle waiting for you. Hurry._

He read the message over and over, _why would Artemis need my help? _ He thought, _could he really be in that big of trouble?_

He made his decision, and then dropped everything he had and burst into an awkward run, which looked like an oversized penguin running, and hurried to the shuttle waiting for him in Atlantis.

When he finally got to the shuttle and opened the door, he was pleasantly surprise to see Qwan, his mentor, waiting for him there.

"Qwan!" He said, "what are you doing here?"

"Hello there N°1," the warlock said warmly, then got to N°1's question, "apparently our magical friend Artemis Fowl needs a large scale healing. So large, in fact, that Holly wants all the help that she can get, so I will be coming with you to help."

N°1 was happy that his mentor was coming with, just as Quan was happy that his apprentice would be helping as well. He was about to ask what was wrong with Artemis, when _all_ of what Qwan said hit him.

"Wait, why did you call Artemis magical? I thought he used up all of his magic?" He asked, looking quite puzzled.

"Oh, that's right, of course his magic is gone. Just a slip of the tongue is all," he replied to N°1, who was still not convinced, but let it go, and got to asking what he _really _wanted to know.

"What is wrong with Artemis that he needs our help?" He asked Qwan.

"I believe that he can answer that question," replied Qwan, gesturing towards the centaur that N°1 just noticed was in the room.

It was, of course, resident technical genius Foaly, who had a lengthy explanation prepared for him, as usual.

"Artemis has a mental disorder called the Atlantis Complex," he started, "which is basically a mix of Obsessive Compulsive Disorder and Multiple Personality Disorder combined into one, and is brought on by massive amounts of guilt and interaction with magic." Foaly said, dumbing it down for the warlocks.

"That sounds bad, what happens while he has this condition?" Qwan asked, joining in on the conversation.

"Well, primarily it affects the way he walks, speaks, thinks, and even writes. He tries the best he can to do things in fives or multiples of fives, and tries to avoid the number four at all costs, because it supposedly sounds like the Chinese word for death."

"Is that all?" N°1 asked, getting worried more and more with each word Foaly said.

"Unfortunately not," the centaur said, much to N°1's dismay. "This condition also makes another consciousness inside Artemis's mind, which talks like he is from the seventeenth century, and has a strong attraction, to say the least, to Holly. This person, named Orion, is also a complete idiot, unlike the mud genius that Artemis is, and the worst part is that he can be brought out at any time Artemis is shocked. This makes treatment of the disease very difficult, since the only known cure is months of electroshock therapy, with only mixed results then," Foaly said, finishing his explanation.

"So he wants us to try a healing? Why does he need both of us?" N°1 asked.

"Well you see," he started, "all healing has done in the past has only cured the patient for a few days, and the obsessive symptoms still remain. Artemis theorized, however, that with the power of the two most powerful fairies on earth, you two, combined \with the power of Holly, one of our best healers, despite not being a warlock, it would be enough to purge the disease from him permanently," Foaly said, just waiting for the question he was dying to answer.

"I see," they both said, "but how can we combine our powers?" N°1 continued.

"I thought you would never ask," said Foaly, though N°1 and Qwan both doubted it.

"Do you know how when we stop time, we used the magic from elfin warlocks placed into generators, then use the generators to actually stop time?

"Yes," N°1 said, but he really had no idea.

"Well, what I plan to do," started Foaly, "is use one of the generators we use to stop time, but instead of using the magic necessary to stop time, you three will put all of your healing magic into the generator, and then I will," he chuckled at what he was about to say, "shoot Artemis."

N°1 took all of this information in, and then finally said, "By shoot, you don't mean…"

"Of course not," interjected Foaly, "I just couldn't help it."

Once they got to the clinic, the first thing that they noticed was that it was very upscale. It was one of those places where one would get sick, just so they could stay the night there. The beds were the highest quality of memory foam, and the in room entertainment was a state of the art hologram system, which adjusted the program you were watching so the action literally happened in the room.

The warlocks, and even Foaly, who designed the holograms, admired the place for a minute, and then remembered what they were there for, and headed towards Artemis's room.

Once they got to Artemis's room, Holly greeted Foaly with a hug as well as N°1 and Qwan, and as the warlocks were saying hello to their favorite human, Foaly cut right in with the medical jargon.

_Ha ha, _Artemis thought, _Jargon, J. Argon, oh the irony._ Then he heard Foaly babbling in his ears.

"Artemis, will you please lay down so Holly can restrain you already?" He asked.

"Why exactly do I need to be restrained, if I might ask?"

"Simple, a healing of this caliber has never been attempted so we don't know what could happen to you," Foaly replied.

Holly showed happiness in her mismatched eyes at the thought of putting Artemis in restraints, but tried to hide it as much as she could.

"Don't worry, Arty, I'll try not to enjoy this too much," she said, but couldn't repress a grin.

As she began to put his restraints on, Artemis couldn't help but notice that she had called him "Arty" again.

_Arty, _he thought, _she's calling me Arty again now?_

He was thinking about why she was calling him by that name, when he realized that he was staring at Holly as she was leaning over his body, putting the restraints on the side opposite her on him.

"Arty, what exactly are you looking at?" Holly asked, all too aware of whom, not what, he was staring at.

"Eh, nothing Holly, just trying to calm myself down is all," he replied.

Holly knew that he was just covering himself, but she let it slide, because she wasn't sure that she didn't lean on his body by accident, either.

_Well now I'm really glad that my mother is being taken to the manor, _Artemis thought.

"Okay, can we get on with this already?" Foaly asked, "in case you have forgotten, we have two Opal Kobois running around Haven."

This statement got Artemis and Holly's minds off of each other, and back onto the subject.

"Yes, of course, bring the generator in here, Foaly," Holly said.

Once Foaly had brought the generator in here, he instructed the three other fairies in the room to focus all of their healing magic that they could into the generator. It was an amazing sight, seeing N°1 and Qwan get into their power positions, with N°1 on his stumpy tail, and Qwan meditating, both of their red eyes now glowing a fluorescent, even neon-like light blue, and Holly, actually hovering above the ground as her mismatched eyes temporarily both glowed the same mesmerizing blue, as she had only one thought going through her head.

_Heal, Artemis. Be well again._

There were a million sparks flowing from their fingertips into the generator, and Artemis began to understand the amount of power that the three of them had at their disposal, and wished for a minute that he hadn't used all of his magic.

This thought sparked another one in his mind.

_Holly said that I still have echoes of magic in me, but no power, _he thought, _maybe that means I can…_

"All right Arty, get ready," Holly said. Artemis didn't even notice that they had finished, and N°1 had already filled Holly back up with magic and left with Qwan, to help the situation at Atlantis again.

"Okay, Foaly," he started, "I'm ready, just count back from five please."

_Hopefully I never have to think like that again, _he thought to himself.

Foaly sighed, but complied nonetheless. "Okay Mud Boy, in five, four," Artemis winced, "three, two, one, fire!" Foaly chuckled, then pressed the button.

A single, seemingly pointless beam of magic came out of the generator, but when it hit Artemis, all hell broke loose. He began to shake violently, testing the restraints to their utter limits as the magic spread around his body, forming a blue cocoon around his body. His body kept shaking and jerking for almost a full two minutes, and when it finally stopped, he lied still on the bed, with his eyes closed.

Holly feared for the worst, "Artemis? Artemis wake up! Artemis!" She shouted at the body, and it seemed to have an effect, because as the last "Artemis!" was said, his eyes opened like a hawk, and he looked around for a second and noticed that he no longer cared that four fairies helped cure him, or that he was being held by four restraints. When he finally looked and saw Holly hovering over him, he smiled possibly the most genuine smile of his life and said, "Thank you Holly, I feel better than ever, now let's go catch those maniacs."


	3. An Heir to the Fallen

**Chapter 3**

Angeline Fowl was sitting inside Fowl Manor with Myles and Beckett, who were wondering what had their mother so worried.

"Mother, why do you look scared?" Asked Myles, climbing onto his mother's lap as he asked this.

"Well," started Mrs. Fowl, "Artemis is sick, and I'm worried that he isn't going to recover," she said, leaving out the parts about the fairies, for the sake of the children.

Beckett was just about to ask a similar question to her, when he was cut off by Mrs. Fowl, who had just seen someone all too familiar on CNN.

_Today we all mourn the tragic death of one of the most successful environmentalists of our time, Giovanni Zito. He was found dead in his home this morning, though the cause of death has yet to be determined. Zito was well known for his wind farming production, and was also known as the only man to send a deep-earth probe to the center of the earth, though not much data was yielded from this project. When the will he had just written two days ago was found on his desk, it showed that he was leaving all funds and research to his daughter, Belinda._

Angeline couldn't believe what she was seeing, from what Artemis had told her of his adventures, Belinda Zito was the pseudonym that Opal Koboi had used when the probe project was occurring. She immediately got out her cell phone and called the one person she completely trusted to keep Artemis safe from harm.

**Aboard a shuttle heading towards the Dr. J Argon Clinic**

Butler was getting impatient, he had already instructed their pilot to get to the clinic as fast as he could, but it wasn't fast enough for his patience. Juliet, on the other hand, couldn't be enjoying this ride more.

"Oh, Butler, can't you just enjoy yourself," she said, "how often do you get to go 700 miles an hour underground?" she asked.

"Too often," he started, "we should be going 900 miles an hour."

"I told you already, Mud Man, it's against regulations to go any faster than 700 miles per hour at any time," the pilot said.

"Well I'm fairly certain you had never had a circumstance where an evil pixie escaped prison and the two people who can capture her are sitting, unprotected, in a hospital," Butler replied angrily.

"True, but rules is rules," the pixie replied smugly.

_Rules is rules,_ thought Butler, _Artemis would have a field day with that one. _Then he felt his phone vibrating.

"Hello Mrs. Fowl, what's the matter?" he asked, sensing that something was wrong.

"The shuttle you're in, it has a TV right?"

"Yes, it does, why?" Butler asked.

"Turn on CNN, hurry," she said, and hung up.

When Butler saw the same headline that Mrs. Fowl did, he was completely shocked. First, Opal killed Commander Root, and now she killed one of the world's most prestigious environmentalists, for no reason whatsoever. His eyes were now filled with anger, and he turned to the young pixie pilot and said,

"Put the accelerator on full, unless you want me to have to force you," he said, it was plenty enough to say, as the pixie had no desire to see how this mountainous human would _force him_ to go over 700 miles an hour.

Butler picked up his phone and called Artemis to let him know what he had just seen on CNN.

"Hello, old friend," Artemis said, waiting for a reply.

He never got one, because as soon as he picked up his phone, the shuttle that the others were in suddenly crashed into a seemingly invisible wall, which brought the shuttle and its unfortunate passengers to a staggering halt.

"Well, well," said a voice, "It's so nice to see three of you at one time. It's a pity that your precious Artemis couldn't be here with you."

Butler and Artemis, still on the line, both instantly recognized the voice of Opal Koboi speaking to them.

"What do you want with us, Opal?" Butler asked her.

"What I want, Mud Man is entertainment. You and your sister truly make quite a fighting duo. You managed to fight off an arena filled with crazed wrestling fans, and you even managed to take down a troll, although it took the help of a certain fairy, did it not?" Opal said.

"It hardly matters though," she continued, "because that troll lacked a certain amount of…insanity. The troll you took down was weak, and I'd be willing to bet that you couldn't take down another one, even with the help of your little sister," she said, completely focused on the two humans, and not paying enough attention to the fact that a dwarf had escaped from the wreckage.

"What are you planning to do with us, you freak?" Juliet yelled, feeling oddly confident for someone in her situation.

"You will find out soon enough, Mud Maid, and when you do, you will wish that I had killed you right here and now," she said, and then pulled out a Neutrino, and quickly knocked out both of the humans.

**The Dr. J. Argon Clinic, Haven City**

As Artemis was listening to what the pixie was telling the Butlers, he was trying to determine why his bodyguard had called him in the first place. It couldn't be because of the situation taking place presently, Opal wouldn't allow anyone to move as long as she was in control.

_That must mean,_ he reasoned, _that there has been another development in this, probably from the other Opal._

He kept the line open, hoping to hear a clue as to where they were going. If Opal didn't notice that his phone was on once, maybe she wouldn't notice the rest of the time either. After another minute or so of listening, he got his answer,

"_Take them to the single largest troll-infested place in Haven," _The present day Opal said.

"_I know just where," _past Opal continued, _"I have always wanted to bring somebody there for torture."_

Artemis took this information in, and was about to ask Holly where this place was, when a shocked dwarf came running up to them.

Mulch burst through the main doors of the clinic at top speed, and the doors threw Foaly on his side as he opened them.

"Ar-Artemis," he said, panting, "Butler and Juliet have been-"

"I know, he called me just as it was happening. What is happening on the surface right now, Mulch?"

It took him a second to remember what they were doing when their shuttle was taken down, "I think that the Opal from today has killed Giovanni Zito, and is taking over his company."

This startled Artemis, "If she is taking over his company, you can bet that she is going to try and expose the People again. Where did you hear this?"

"CNN," Mulch said.

"Okay, Holly, can you turn the TV in here on?" Artemis asked.

"Sure thing Arty," she replied, and then turned it on.

There was an interview with Belinda Zito going on right now, and the four of them quickly recognized this as Opal,

_"What do you plan on doing with the company, now that your father has passed?" _A reporter said.

_"Well," started Opal, "I'd like to continue research on other life forms on Earth," _she said.

_"Continue?" _the reporter said, surprised_, "When did this research begin?"_

_ "Well, it started when the underground probe began transmitting possible data of life to our sensors, but my father insisted that this was just animals. When the readings continued below several thousand feet, however, I got suspicious, and began to look at those readings myself. What I plan to do, is try and capture a creature, and if I succeed, I will present it to you all as a new species."_

Holly was the first to speak. "So she is going to expose us by simply taking herself prisoner?" she said.

"I don't think so," Artemis said, "she would have already done that by now. Until we can figure out who she wants to expose, we need to find Butler and Juliet. Opal said that she was going to take them to the most troll-infested place in Haven, where is that, Holly?" he asked her.

She thought about it for a minute, and then her stomach dropped at the location that came to mind.

"Are you sure that is where they are being taken, Arty?" she asked.

"Yes, I'm sure, now where is it?" he said, growing impatient.

Holly sighed, and then came out with it. "The most troll-infested place in haven is…the eleven wonders exhibit."


	4. Trolls vs Butlers

**Chapter 4**

After hearing where the Butlers were being taken, Artemis shuddered. Did he really have to go back there again? The place where he came closest to death, and only survived because Butler came in with a shuttle and broke him out. He couldn't believe it, and furthermore, he didn't understand why that place still existed.

"I thought they were tearing that place down a month after we were taken there?" Artemis asked Holly.

"Well, it was supposed to be torn down, originally," she started, "but because it was a part of what happened with Opal, it became a crime scene and well, nobody ever got around to tearing the place down."

"Lucky us," Artemis said, his sarcasm still not betraying him.

"It should be fairly simple to break them out, shouldn't it be? We just take a shuttle in there like Butler did last time and get them out," Holly said.

Artemis gave her a look that sent the message; _do you really think it's going to be that easy? _And after a few seconds he said to her, "Opal will have thought of that, so I doubt we will be able to fly in with a shuttle to rescue them," he said, and then sat down at a chair in the waiting room and massaged his temples.

"So are you giving up now, Mud Boy?" Mulch said.

"Be quiet," Holly said, "he's thinking," she said back to him.

After sitting there for a few minutes, he stood up and said to his two friends, "Okay, so the past Opal wants to destroy all of us, and the present day Opal wants to reveal the People to the humans, inevitably starting a war. This makes it very difficult for us to stop her, since we can't get out of Haven without her seeing us, and we can't rescue the Butlers without her seeing us either. We really only have one way of getting them out, the way I see it," he said to Holly and Mulch, "but you aren't going to like it very much…and get Foaly," he continued, noticing for the first time that the centaur was not there, "were going to need him for this one."

**The Eleven Wonders exhibit**

Butler awoke about half an hour after he had been tranquilized. The first thing that he noticed was that he was in an enclosed room, or something that looked like it. It was a triangle shaped room, with a roof about only two stories above him. The second thing he noticed was that Juliet was next to him, still unconscious from the Neutrino blast.

_You will wish I had killed you right here,_ he could remember Opal saying only a few minutes ago, but what felt like a few days. He studied the room further, it was dark, but his soldier's eyes adjusted quickly to the darkness, and eventually realized that the room was completely empty, except for the two of them, and there was a singular door in front of them, with gnommish writing on it.

Though Butler could not speak gnommish completely fluently, he did know how to read it, and he quickly was able to translate what it said into English.

_Emergency Exit only, alarm will sound when opened._

If it was Opal who put them here, the exit was almost certainly locked, Butler thought to himself.

"No harm in trying," he said aloud.

"Dom, is that you?" Juliet, who had suddenly awoken, said.

"Yes, it's me, and please don't use my first name, Opal may be watching," he said, and Juliet frowned, remembering what had happened a half hour previous.

"Is there any way out?" Juliet asked.

"There's only this emergency exit, as far as I can see, but it's almost certainly locked, Opal would have thought of that," he replied.

"Try it anyways," Juliet said, the smallest hint of hope still in her voice.

He did, and had immediately wished that he didn't. The door swung open without any resistance, and when the Butlers thought that they were free, they realized that they were really inside a troll habitat, and they had just set off an alarm that must be shouting, _dinner!_ to the trolls.

Most of the trolls stayed where they were, but a few outsiders turned their way, and with a few loud grunts and howls, they communicated what they had seen to the other trolls.

They immediately began charging, which would have given possibly any other humans in the world the biggest fright of their lives, but these were Butlers, and when faced with enemies they had only one reaction.

Butler went for his Sauer, and he was surprised to find that it was there.

_Opal forgot about my gun? She's slipping._

He took aim at the trolls' necks, their weak spots, and fired two shots at the first four trolls in the line.

They hit, or rather, they should have hit, Butler's aim was perfect, he was sure of it, and then the penny dropped.

_Blanks, _he thought, _what a time for Opal to develop a sense of humor._

Juliet's reaction was a little different after seeing what happened to her brother, she reached into her hair and pulled out the ring in her ponytail, and whipped it at one of the trolls, which actually worked, to a point, the beast actually fell backwards, but quickly got up and started to chase again.

"Do you have any other weapons?" Butler asked his sister.

"No, all gone, I can't believe Opal put blanks in our guns."

Butler was about to try and run for it, when he noticed that the building that they had walked out of was a replica of one of the Great Pyramids. He started making his way to the top of the tower, and instructed Juliet to do the same.

"Why are we going up here, they'll surround us!" she screamed at him.

"The blocks of the pyramid, they're coming loose, throw them at their necks, it may incapacitate them, it may not, we won't know unless we try," he said, more calmly than anyone else in this situation would. He had known Artemis Fowl too long for anything to be shocking to him anymore.

They started throwing block by block at the trolls, each one appearing to do less damage than the last. At first, the younger, smaller, but faster trolls were hit, and the blocks actually managed to knock those trolls out, but as the larger trolls made their way to the tower, they withstood more damage, only getting knocked back, and when the largest bull trolls came along, the blocks could hardly do anything at all.

The Butlers were running out of blocks, and they could hear a voice coming from seemingly nowhere say "Is that all you can do, Mud Man? Throw some rocks at these giants? You are even more pathetic than I thought you-!" the voice shouted, then suddenly stopped, and both Butlers managed to recognize the voice of Opal Koboi.

They were almost out of rocks, when all of a sudden, the ground beneath them suddenly disappeared, and a small figure jumped out of the clay and said, "If you want to live, hang on!"

The Butler's did not need to be told twice, they grabbed onto the back of Mulch Diggums (for of course it was he,) and they were launched into the ground, which had been sealed up as soon as they left, the trolls left to wonder what happened.

Once they had resurfaced safely outside the exhibit, the first that that Butler said was,

"Where is Artemis?"

Mulch looked at him, then said, "you're welcome for saving you Mud Man, and as for your question, Artemis should be here any second with Opal, then we can finally wipe her and send her back."

Butler doubted it, with Artemis's plans, no matter how well they seemed to be working out, something had to go wrong. And after a few minutes waiting for Artemis to arrive, he got his answer.

"He's not here Mulch, tell me what his plan was, NOW!" he demanded.

"Well you see, I don't know," he started, "I was only told that I had to rescue you when he gave the order, and that he would be back with Opal," he finished.

"Why does he always have to do this to me?" Butler wondered aloud.

**Outside the exhibit, fifteen minutes ago**

Artemis and Holly were looking for Opal's shuttle. Or rather, they were looking for where her shuttle wasn't. He told them that he was sure Opal would want to stick around to watch the show, as she would likely not want to be there to see the Butler's die. So Artemis had to make sure that she wouldn't see them escape, and that meant that they somehow had to distract her, and the best way to distract her was to capture her.

He put his search filters through the LEP scanner, and it took him no more than a minute to locate the shuttle, two hundred feet in the air and about a thousand feet away from them. Artemis was suddenly very glad that their entire station was hidden behind cam foil.

"Okay Foaly, so what do you have for me?" Artemis asked.

"Well, it isn't so much as what I have for you as it is what I have for Holly," he began, "since you can't shoot, she will be the one handling this," he said, handing her a dart gun that Artemis was sure packed quite a punch.

"These darts are even more powerful than Neutrinos, unfortunately my budget is so low I can only make about three of the guns per year," Foaly said disappointed.

"Still, Mud Boy, if you insist on going in, take this anyways," he said, handing him a Neutrino 3000.

As they made their way towards the shuttle in silence, Artemis had a few things that he wanted to clear with Holly, so he broke the silence.

"Holly," he started, "have you forgiven me for what I did a few months ago?"

"You mean when you lied to me?" she started, with just a bit of annoyance in her voice. She sighed, but then said, "Of course I have, after seeing how much guilt you had over it, I know that it must have been tearing away at you inside. Truthfully, I probably would have done the same thing if my mother was dying," she said, much to Artemis's relief.

"Were here, time to go up," she said, clipping Artemis onto her moonbelt.

"Thanks, Holly, but I could have done that myself," he said.

"I know, I just wanted to make sure it was done right," she said, covering herself, and thankfully for her Artemis let it go.

Holly started her wings up and eventually they were up against the shuttle, feeling for the hatch that would open it up, and praying that they were not on the windshield of the shuttle.

Eventually, Holly found it and opened it up silently, and they entered the shuttle, setting up right behind Opal, who was watching the Butler's rock throwing.

"Now Mulch," Artemis whispered into his microphone.

"You are even more pathetic than I thought you-" Opal said, and was stopped short by the tranquilizer dart that hit her in the neck.

As Artemis had thought, they timed it just right, she looked at them at the same time Mulch went in to rescue the Butlers, and was gone in a second. The only problem was that the pixie didn't go down. Any other pixie would, but her specialized magic kept her awake, though she felt drowsy, and as she turned, she pulled out her Neutrino and fired at Artemis and Holly, knocking them both out cold.

"Well, well," she said to herself, "if it isn't Artemis Fowl and Captain Short, just the people I wanted to see."

She took a look back at the screens, and the trolls were clawing at the ground, and when they backed away, nothing was left.

"I'm glad I'm not the Butlers right now, it's a shame I didn't get to see their demise," she said, then called Belinda, her other self.

"Yes?" present day Opal said.

"You were looking for a fairy prisoner, correct?" past Opal asked.

"Correct," present Opal replied.

"Well I can do you one better," past Opal said cunningly, then made her way to the surface, her hostages unconscious on the floor of the shuttle.


	5. The Magic Touch

**Chapter 5**

**Outside the Eleven Wonders Exhibit**

Foaly walked up to Butler and Mulch with a shocked look on his face.

"Where is the Mud Boy?" he asked Butler, though he had a feeling that he knew the answer.

"He isn't here, obviously," said the bodyguard, "what was he trying to do?"

"He and Holly found Opal's shuttle, and then they went inside it to tranquilize Opal and bring her back here. I sent them in with the best dart guns anywhere under the earth, so assuming they hit, there is no way Opal should have been able to subdue them," the centaur stated.

"Well then we have to assume that they missed, and are now being held prisoner by one or both Opals," Butler replied.

Mulch was listening to this conversation searching for food, but when the words "taken prisoner" were said, he decided that some input was necessary.

"Wait, Opal from today had an interview on CNN earlier today, still posing as Belinda Zito, saying that she was going to try and capture a fairy and publicize it, probably wanting to force the Mud Men into exterminating us," he said, and the fact that he remembered this piece of information surprised everyone.

"Where was this interview being held?" Foaly asked him.

"Italy, it was at his estate in Italy." Mulch replied, not realizing the importance of the question, as usual.

"Well then, that's where we're going," Foaly said, and began to form a battle plan.

**Ireland**

Holly was the first one to regain consciousness, her fairy magic aiding her smaller body. She was about to try and shake Artemis awake, when a voice interrupted her.

"Glad you're awake; _Captain Short_," Opal said, enunciating the last two words as if they were an insult, "before you get any ideas, you should know that if you try anything, I will not hesitate to kill you," she said, brandishing a softnose laser.

_Big surprise there, _thought Holly.

"If you cooperate with me, you will not only live longer, but you just might save the Mud Boy's life as well, you wouldn't want him to die too, would you?"

Holly was quickly analyzing the situation. She was handcuffed to an oak tree in the middle of a strangely familiar place, and the cuffs had animal fat laced in the chains, to suppress her magic. _They must not have been on for that long though, or else Artemis would have woken first_, she thought, not that it made much of a difference now. After this, she began thinking about her situation as a hostage. She knew that Opal wanted to present her to the humans and that she would probably slaughter her after that, but she also knew that Opal had to keep her alive until then.

"You're bluffing, Opal, I know you can't kill me if you want to expose us," she said.

"On the contrary, I don't need you. Look how easy it was for me to take one of the best LEP officers hostage, you think it would be _harder_ for me to just kidnap a different fairy? So," she continued, "if you want the both of you to stay alive for a little longer, do exactly as I say."

Holly was not happy with the situation that she was in, obviously. She had absolutely no idea how to get out of it, so she was just going to have to play this evil pixie's games until Artemis wakes up.

Luckily, she did not have to wait to long. Not five seconds after Opal finished her sentence than the human's mismatched eyes opened. He was instantly alert, remembering what had happened to him a few hours earlier.

He tried to make himself familiar with his surroundings, and noticed that he too was handcuffed to an oak tree, and a plan began to take shape in his head. It all relied on a theory, but in his situation, he didn't have much of a choice. Then he saw Opal, and immediately became angered.

"So, the Mud Boy finally awakens," Opal said,"

"Why did you bring me here?" he asked her, realizing that he was on the outskirts of Fowl Manor.

"Well after all that you have done to me, I don't think that simply killing you would do me justice, oh no," she said, "I intend to rid your whole family of this Earth."

"How exactly do you plan on doing that, Koboi?" Artemis asked her, and although he already knew the answer, he needed a distraction, so he could take time to dig a hole behind his back.

"Oh Mud Boy, sometimes I don't think you're half as intelligent as you say you are," she began. "It's quite simple, actually, I'm just going to send in a bio bomb into your estate and your whole family will be wiped from existence, and then I will-"

"Let me guess, you will kill me," Artemis said, burying the small object he had concealed within his pocket.

"Now that famous Mud Man brain is showing itself!" she said, seemingly happy with the fact that he knew his own fate.

"When are you going to do this?" Artemis asked, worried about his family's fate.

"Right now," Opal said, and pushed a small button on the remote control she was holding.

Artemis saw it, a blue light began to streak through the night sky, hurdling towards the manor at near supersonic speed, and there was no stopping it from reaching its final destination.

Except that it seemed to do just that, the blue light that was the bio bomb flashed in a vertical line, then fizzed out of existence, and the Manor remained untouched.

Opal was irate, she had just seen what she believed to be an unstoppable bomb be stopped by…who knows what? "Fowl! What did you do?" she screamed.

"I made some upgrades to the manor's security system," he started, as calm as he could, "Since the active agent in a bio bomb is light, all you need to do to render it useless is get rid of its light. So, I up an invisible wall around the manor that will take effect when there is a highly concentrated light source, your bio bomb, passing through it, and the wall diffuses the light around it, rendering your bio bomb harmless.

Opal was obviously losing it, Artemis Fowl had once again bester her, and for that he needed to die. "All right Fowl, I was going to keep you around until Short here was dead, but now I've had enough of you!" She reached for her softnose laser and looked Artemis straight in the eye and said "So you will die now," she said.

Opal had made quite a large mistake bringing Artemis and Holly here. While she had them handcuffed to a tree, she did not put animal fat in Artemis's cuffs; he was human, after all. This, however, gave Artemis the idea of testing his theory on performing the ritual for himself. He buried an acorn next to the tree he was handcuffed to, and all his magic came rushing back to him. Seeing Opal with a gun and about to kill him, he decided now would be a good time to use it.

"_Put the gun down Opal." _Artemis said, his voice clear and forceful. Opal was caught off guard, this Mud Boy had just told her to put the gun down, and she felt inclined to do so. "Whatever you're doing Fowl it won't work," she said, though she wasn't quite so sure.

_"Put it down, now. You are my slave,"_ Artemis stated again, with more force this time

Opal had realized now that she was being mesmerized by his human, but it was too late, because by not being prepared, ever her exceptional mind was powerless to this Mud Boy's magic. She tried to pull the gun back up, and fired, but did not hit anything, and her mind slowly slipped away from her as Artemis stated once again _"You are my slave, you will do as I say."_

"I am your slave. I will do as you say," Opal said, completely locked away inside of her own head, not unlike Artemis was just a day ago.

_"Good. Now, let us out of these handcuffs," _Artemis continued, and his newly acquired lackey did so.

"How exactly did you do that?" Holly asked, after being oddly silent throughout the entire ordeal.

"Well, I remembered that when you probed me, you told me that I still had echoes of magic inside of me, and that got me thinking that I could possibly restore my magic. Luckily, Opal decided to chain us to an oak tree in the middle of the night, so this made my plan fairly easy to execute. Lucky for us, Opal was caught off guard by a human using magic, so she was subdued by my _mesmer_," he finished.

Holly, now out of her handcuffs, got an idea. "Is is possible for us to use this Opal to infiltrate the other's system?"

"I don't think so, she will almost certainly recognize that she is mesmerized, and will capture us once she finds us," Artemis said, "but we can at least mind wipe this Opal and send her back to the past, and then focus on capturing the other Opal," he finished.

"Right, then lets get out of here," Holly said, and they began to leave the manor with Opal, but when Holly tried to contact Foaly, he didn't answer his phone. She wondered what had happened so she tracked his location, and she found that he was in Italy. To be precise, he was inside the basement of Giovanni Zito's estate.

"Artemis, I think that we may have a problem," she said.


	6. Captured

**Chapter 6**

**Outside of the Zito Estate, an hour ago**

There were not too many mistakes that Foaly had made during his LEP career, but assuming that Artemis and Holly were taken straight to the Zito Estate was the direst of his quickly shortening life.

They were standing, or crouching, rather, about 100 yards away from the mansion, behind one of many thick bushes in the surrounding area.

"Okay everybody, let's have one last run through before we do this," he said to the Butlers and Mulch.

"We know it already," Juliet interjected, "Mulch tunnels us into the cellar, where we wind this cable around any of the video cables on a camera, so you can get control of the video, and then all we need to do is check every room for them and once we have them, get them out, taking Opal if possible," she finished.

"Right," Foaly said, "be sure you keep your Neutrinos in hand just in case any unexpected problems arise, as that seems to happen to us quite a bit," he said.

"Just to be sure, Mulch won't have to…empty his tank before we get there, will he?" Butler asked, as he did not at all want to be at the receiving end of that dwarf's rear again.

"It's your lucky day, mud man, I haven't eaten in _four hours_ just so I could get us all the way there in one trip," he said, though Butler doubted he hasn't eaten in four hours.

"Enough talk, let's get them out of there before anything else can happen to them," Foaly said, getting everyone back on track.

"Alright, everyone, give me some space," Mulch said, and he took his initial dive. Once he was about ten feet down the Butlers climbed into the hole. The earth was soft and quite tasty for Mulch. It was obvious that Zito had taken immense care of his property.

"This is delectable, you guys," Mulch said, his voiced muffed a bit by the dirt in his mouth, "seriously, I bet that even you would like this. Care to try?" he asked, dead serious.

Butler had heard the term "eat dirt" before, but had never considered doing it himself, in the literal or figurative sense, so he simply said to Mulch, "No thanks, just get us to the estate so we can get Artemis out of there."

After another few minutes without interruption, they were directly under the cellar of the mansion.

"Is there anybody up there?" Juliet asked.

"No, there isn't anybody for another three or four rooms down, I'm gonna start going up now," he informed them.

He began his ascent, and when he broke into the room he quickly learned that the wooden floor was quite old and even termite infested. Obviously this room was not used quite as often as the other ones.

Once he had finished climbing out, he quickly scanned the room for any video cameras and to his surprise there was only one, which was angled at the door, presumably looking for intruders. It made sense; who could get into an underground room without walking through the door?

He motioned for the Butlers to keep as quiet as possible, as the camera would most likely have audio, then he helped them out of the hole. After everyone was out, he quickly disposed of what he had ingested back into the hole and sealed it.

To avoid making any noise, Butler turned to mouthing his words, "How are we going to get to the video wires without stepping in the camera's line of sight?" he asked Mulch, who was possibly the last person he would expect to be turning to for a plan in a normal situation. The situation at hand, however, was definitely not a normal one.

"Foaly gave me this," he said, taking some cam foil out of his pockets. The Butlers realized that it was not enough to cover either of them, so they just nodded, letting Mulch know to get on with it.

He put the foil on, and then started making his way over to the camera. Once there, he carefully removed a hand which was now beneath the camera's lens, and therefore out of view, from the cam foil and took out the wire and reached out towards the video cable sticking out of the backside of the camera.

He carefully unwrapped the covering from the video cable, and then went to wind the wire Foaly gave him around it, at which point all hell broke loose.

It was supposed to be so easy, wrap wire around cable, and get control of video feed. The fates, however, were not feeling all too generous towards them today. As soon as Foaly's wire made contact with the cable, an alarm sounded, immediately alerting the inhabitants of their presence.

"Get out of here! We have to get Artemis and Holly!" Butler shouted, and they all made for the door.

Of course, had they known that nobody was truly there; perhaps they would have gone back the way they came and saved themselves a lot of trouble. As it was, however, they were searching for two nonexistent prisoners in a mansion with guards stationed on every floor.

They ran out of the room and into the hallway, and were greeted by two rather tall pixies with guns. Butler took care of one, and Juliet easily handled the other. They ran to the next room and upon not seeing neither Artemis nor Holly, made their way to the next, which again didn't contain them, but did contain another five pixies.

Butler bashed into one of the men, sending him flying into another which had just fired a shot from what turned out to be a dart gun. At the same time, Juliet roundhoused a third, and then quickly dropped the other two, who had their attention focused on the giant on the other side of the room.

"They aren't on this floor, we need to go up," Butler said, already halfway out of the door. He could only imagine how many more guards would be waiting for them on the next floor.

When he got there, he got his answer. Thankfully, there were only two at the door, and both of them were caught off guard. This made them quite easy to dispose of for the Butlers and they began to make their way toward the nearest door.

They were stopped dead in their tracks when Mulch shouted out and dropped to the floor. He hit the ground with a thud, and the Butlers spotted a dart sticking out of his rear. They turned to run the other direction, but that was all they had time for, as they were each picked off by two more of the unusually strong darts each. The three shooters stepped out of the shadows in the hallway and walked to take their prisoners.

Outside of the mansion, Foaly could see all of this happening from his monitors that he had set up. Ironically, the monitors he had intended to use to watch Opal's demise on were now being used to watch his friends'.

As soon as he saw the Butlers go down, he knew he had to hightail it out of there, or he would be next. He began to frantically tear down his setup and pack it back into the shuttle, but he was interrupted by the sound of men running toward him.

Foaly had no choice but to leave some of his precious machinery behind to get out of there immediately. He turned the shuttle on in a hurry, and thanking his lucky stars he designed the shuttle, took off in a flash.

He may have designed the shuttle, but Foaly was no expert flyer, and he would need to be to outrun Opal's henchmen he suddenly saw coming at him.

Foaly maneuvered the shuttle through a few of the trees, hoping to make the others run into them, and after finding a clear spot, brought the shuttle up high. He checked his sensors, and upon seeing that there was no longer anybody on his tail (no pun intended) brought the shuttle down to a more reasonable speed.

That was his mistake. After about a minute of slower flying, the lights on the sensors began flashing out of control, spotting ten shuttles chasing after him at blazing speeds. Foaly tried to hammer the throttle, but it was too late. Before he knew it, his shuttle was hit three times, and he was plummeting towards the Earth.

He knew that he had to get out of there, or Artemis and Holly would never get out of the mansion, so in a last ditch effort, he activated the ejector seat, and was launched into the open air.

Foaly's parachute activated, and he began accelerating towards the ground. _Accelerating? Why would I be accelerating if the parachute deployed?_

Then it hit him, his parachute had indeed deployed, but when he looked up, there was a large gaping hole in it. Opal's men had shot his parachute.

_This is really going to hurt,_ he thought, before crashing into the ground with a loud thud.


End file.
